The present invention relates to a cooking utensil for frying foodstuffs on a griddle. More particularly, this invention relates to a multi-compartmented utensil for use with a griddle.
Griddles are known and utilized for frying various foodstuffs including pancakes, eggs, crepes or fried sandwiches. The cooking surface or griddle is usually a flat planar surface, which either can be positioned over a source of heat or is integrally built into an appliance for direct heating by a source of heat. The heat is conducted through the griddle wall thickness to elevate the temperature of the upper surface, and a lubricant cooking fluid, grease or release-agent is applied to this surface prior to frying the foodstuff. The release agent prevents sticking of the fried food to the griddle and inhibits burning of the food surface at the griddle surface.
The conventional technique of cooking pancakes includes the steps of (1) pouring a batter onto a flat and normally pre-heated griddle surface, whereby a substantially rounded and flat pad is formed, (2) leaving the batter pad to cook on its downward or first side, (3) flipping the partially-cooked batter pad over, and (4) leaving the batter pad to cook on its opposite or second side. This conventional process normally produces a pancake that has a browned skin or casing on each side.
The dimensions of a pancake cooked by the conventional technique are at least partially controlled by the flow characteristics of the batter and the amount of batter poured. For a given amount of batter poured, a thinner batter will spread out more than a thicker batter, forming a wider and thinner pancake. The spreading of the batter is generally outward from the pouring point, except of course in any direction in which spreading is impeded, such as by a physical barrier. Any partial cooking or heating of the batter during its spreading will modify its flow characteristics and will generally slow or diminish spreading.
Conventional pancake cooking techniques using conventional apparatuses will generally not produce multiple pancakes of uniform size, shape and thickness unless there is a stringent uniformity imposed upon all dimension-determining factors, including without limitation the batter""s flow characteristics, the amount of batter poured, the temperature of the griddle surface and the modification of the batter""s flow characteristics by partial cooking or heating during its spreading. Such stringent uniformity would be particularly difficult to achieve, or even approach, when using conventional techniques and conventional apparatus during high-volume manual cooking operations, when many such cooked items are needed within a short time.
Previous attempts to provide a device that would allow production within a short period of time of multiple cooked items, such as pancakes, of uniform size and shape have fallen short. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,281,943 to Gonsalves, U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,592 to White, U.S. Pat. No. D-109,658 to Hamilton, U.S. Pat. No. D-270,225 to Chiulli and U.S. Pat. No. D-383,354 to Nassar all provide multi-compartmented frying pans having closed sides for use in simultaneously frying or cooking multiple items of identical shape. Whereas these devices all enable the several items that fit within the pan to be cooked simultaneously within a short period of time, flipping of the items within the frying pan and removal of the items from the frying pan are much more difficult tasks because the cooking is not performed directly on a flat griddle but rather within the shaped frying pan whose sides may interfere with removal of the cooked or partially-cooked item. Thus, repeated cooking using the same device is much slower, because time gained by cooking several items at one time within the device is outweighed by the extra time and inconvenience involved in attempting to remove items from the frying pan. Accordingly, while such devices may be used to cook several items simultaneously, using the device repeatedly to achieve high volume cooking of uniform items cannot be achieved with these devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,978 to Proul describes an individual cooking form for use with a frying pan or grill. The cooking form has a shaped outer wall with an open middle region but no bottom, whereby eggs or batter that is poured directly onto the griddle is confined to the area within the form so that food may be given an interesting and appealing appearance while also permitting control over the product shape and thickness. The cooking form also has an enlargement of the wall at one point around its periphery and a recess within that enlargement to allow a cooking implement to serve as handle for lifting the form. This device, however, does not allow the user to cook multiple such items at one time without separate cooking forms being used, because only one such item may be cooked in a form at one time. In addition, the lack of a separate gripping handle makes such a device clumsy and difficult to use.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,280 to Stier describes an individual cooking form for shaping or molding eggs on a frying pan or griddle into the shape and appearance of a flower, such as a daisy. A pivotable handle is provided in order to allow the mold to be readily placed on or lifted from a frying pan surface. This device also does not allow the user to cook multiple such items at one time without separate cooking forms being used, because only one such item may be cooked in a form at one time. Although the reference states that a plurality of such molds may be coupled together or that a mold having a plurality of apertures for receiving a number of eggs simultaneously may be readily employed, no description of how such a device may be employed or constructed is provided, and this would be particularly important for a device with a non-standard shape, as disclosed, several of which could not be easily combined. This device thus does not allow for truly high volume cooking of uniform items.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for cooking multiple articles of identical size, shape and thickness.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device for cooking articles at a high volume within a short period of time.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device for cooking multiple articles of identical size, shape and thickness at a high volume within a short period of time.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a device for cooking multiple articles of a variety of sizes, shapes and thicknesses at a high volume within a short time period.
In accordance with the above objects and others that will be obvious to those skilled in the art, the present invention is directed to a compartmented cooking device for simultaneously cooking a plurality of articles on a flat heated surface. The device has an outer wall that extends continuously around the perimeter of an area and at least one internal wall within the area and integrally formed with the outer wall. The internal walls define within the area a plurality of compartments for receiving a material to be cooked and for maintaining the material separately on the heated surface. In one preferred embodiment, the compartments are all of substantially equal area and shape, such as square, rectangular, triangular, rhomboid, trapezoid, circular, oval or any other shape, and are all open from both an upward direction and a downward direction. In another embodiment, the compartments are not necessarily all of substantially equal area and shape, and compartments of a variety of areas, shapes and dimensions may be included within the same device.
The bottom surfaces of the external and internal walls should be substantially flat, such that the device may rest substantially flat on the flat griddle. The walls of each compartment should have at least one marking thereon for delineating a desired level for insertion of material to be cooked, and the respective markings on each compartment should delineate the same levels. The device also has a handle for allowing it to be lifted off the griddle without a user having to touch the walls of the device.